f LIBRARY OF CONGRE.SS.# 

^ # 



f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ! 



THE SITUATION AND THE DUTY. 



SPEECH 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 



AUBURN, N. Y., OCTOBER SI, 18G8. 




WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
PHILP & SOLOMONS 

18G8. 



4. 



THE SITUATION ASI) THE DUTY. 



"Secrctarj' Seavard," says the Auhxirn Daily Advertiser of Oc- 
tober 31, 1868, "this afternoon addressed one of the larijjest audi- 
ences ever convened in Corning Ilall. The bare announcement 
yesterday that lie was to speak to-da}' created an intense anxiety 
in the ]iublic mind to hear him, and when the doors of the hall 
were thrown ojjen at half-past one o'clock, it was immediately 
filled to overflowing, man^^ hundreds being unable to gain admit- 
tance. Secretary Seward was introduced by Rev. Dr. Hawley." 

DR. IIAWLEY'S SPEECH. 

In the performance of an agreeable duty, fellow- 
citizens, I was about to extend, on your behalf, a cor- 
dial greeting to our distinguished neighbor and personal 
friend on this occasion. But j^our prompt and hearty 
response to his presence once more on this platform, 
on tlie eve of a great popular decision, is of deeper 
significance than any words of welcome. The desire 
to hear what, from his position, he may counsel at this 
time is not less earnest and sincere than at other periods 
of public concern, when he has spoken to his towns- 
men, and thus to the whole country, and indeed to the 
whole world. It only remains for me, in interpreting 
tills desire, to say (here the speaker turned to address 
Mr. Seward) tiiat it springs from recollections and as- 
sociations which can neitlier be forgotten nor obscured 
in the ever-varying })liases of political action or popu- 
lar judgment. And that whatever of merited lionor or 
fame may attacli to the career of a public servant, it 
can never cease to be witli him a gratefid consciousness 
that he also liolds fast the esteem and ailection of those 
who know him best, among whom stands his home, 
and witli whom, when public service ceases, he exi)ects 
to mingle in the scenes and duties of ordiiiar}' hie to 
its destined dose. 



Mr. Seward was received with immense applause, 
and proceeded to address his audience as follows : 

SPEECH OF SECEETAEY SEWARD. 

My Friends and Neighbors : My long absence on 
political occasions and my present appearance here are 
proper subjects of inquir}^ on your part. In explain- 
ing both, I may be able to say all tliat is proper or 
necessary to be said in this pleasant interview. 

Upon the first point, I might well enough plead offi- 
cial occupation. Official obligations necessarily and 
justly take precedence over those of private citizenship. 
The pubHc may properly say to its appointed servants, 
"these ought 3^e to have done, and not to leave the 
others undone." Government occupation is increased 
by civil war, and necessaril}' increased by returning 
peace. It increases with ever-increasing population, 
territory, and commercial and political connections. 
But, for all this, you are not to suppose, as many assume, 
that I am purchasing on Government account all the 
outlying territories in the universe', [laughter and ap- 
plause,] or indeed proposing to acquire dominion any- 
where be3'ond the magic circle of the Monroe doctrine. 

I iniglit plead inadequate strength. I have reason 
to thank God, indeed, that neither age, nor indulgence, 
iu)r casualty, has brought so great decrepitude as per- 
sons have sometimes inuigined. Nevei'theless I cer- 
tainly have some years, perhaps enough for a place on 
the retired list ; and some wounds, })erhaps enougli for 
a })ension, if I were in the military or naval service. 

Moreover, every opinion or sentiment of mine, that 
has a bearing upon the present hour, was spoken long 
ago; spoken, as I thought, in due time; spoken, either 



concnrrently with or in advance of political events. So 
true is this, that no one has mistaken my abiding atti- 
tude, or pretends now to doubt either my official views 
or my political relations. 

Moreover, as it is the duty of deacons to serve, not 
to lead in the sacrifice, so it has always seemed to me 
that it is the duty of Secretaries to serve in the admin- 
istration, and not to lead in popular assemblies. Pos- 
sibly you ma}^ say, however, that a citizen has no right 
to be a Secretary when a party or an interest desires 
him for a leader. 1 answer that deacons are deacons, 
not by any choice of their own, but because they are 
chosen by the church ; and certainly I am a Secretary, 
through no ambition of my own for that office, but be- 
cause the nation has constitutionally required me to be. 
It would be a poor act of piety on the part of a deacon 
to refuse to serve because he preferred to sacrifice ; and 
I liumbl}^ tinnk it would be a poor act of patriotism in 
a citizen to refuse to be a Secretary, because he preferred 
to be a popular leader. Our places, fellow-citizens, are 
assigned to us, not by ourselves, but under the provi- 
dence of God b}^ our associates and fellow-men. Our 
friends here, Mr. James Seymour and Dr. Steele, are 
living demonstrations that it is better to be a meek 
and humble, but efficient deacon, than to be schismatic, 
quarreling with the priest and dividing the sacred con- 
gregation. [Laughter and applause.] 

The case, liowever, is now somewhat changed. I am 
at home for indispensable private business. I find you 
in an election to constitute a new administration of the 
Government of the United States. A theory obtained 
in the early revival of science that an elixir could be 
compounded, hy the use of which the human conslilu- 



lion could be renewed at the end of every hundred 
years, and so man become immortah The quadrennial 
national election of President and Congress in the 
United States is just such a periodical renewal as this 
of the national life, whereby the nation in fact becomes 
immortal. 

The casting of my vote in great elections of tliis sort 
is equally the exercise of an inestimable privilege and 
the performance of a high and sacred duty. Mutual 
explanation of votes is the only means by wliicli mu- 
tual confidence can be preserved among citizens, while 
it saves suffrage itself from profanation, intrigue, and 
corruption. In an experience of eiglity years under 
the Constitution which makes us a nation, we have re- 
newed the Republic, in the same prescribed way, by 
twenty national elections. I have voted and explained 
in the last eleven ; these being all of those national 
elections that have occurred since I came to the fran- 
chise. The present election is the twenty-first of the 
entire series, and my twelfth one. In this election, 
just as I expressed myself at the time of each preced- 
ing one, I feel that this one may be my last. 

Every Presidential election necessarily has a real, 
although an abstract importance. We have hei-e a re- 
})ublican system instead of the monarchical one. An 
ultimate adoption of this S3'stem by all the American 
nations is necessary for our securit}'. Every new re- 
public established anywhere constitutes a new bulwark 
of the Republic of the United States. [Applause.] 

Our Republican Government has some peculiar de- 
vices of local adaptation and equivalent, designed to 
operate by way of check and balance. Nevertheless, 
our Constitution has four essential elements, perhnps 



no more. These elements are, first, the actnal choice 
of the presiding magistrate by the direct vote of the 
whole people ; second, equal suffrage of all citizens in 
that election ; third, equal representation of all con- 
stituent communities in the Republic ; and, fourth, con- 
ditions and periods of power well defined and abso- 
lutely fixed. The casting or the withholding of a vote 
by any -citizen inconsideratel}^ actually impairs, al- 
though perhaps imperceptibly, the vigor and energy 
necessary to the continuance of the Republic, just as 
the casting or the withholding of all the votes of the 
people inconsideratel}^ would bring it abruptly to an 
end. 

Standing as we do now at the close of the twentieth 
administration, I can well conceive that the first elec- 
tion was the most important of all, inasmuch as a 
mistake then committed in the choice of the first 
President of the United States, or of the first Con- 
gress, might have involved the failure of the system at 
the very beginning. It was just such a mistake that 
the French people committed in 1S48, when they lost 
their new republic by electing a Bonaparte instead of 
a Cavaignac. That mistake having been avoided here, 
the Government promptly went into successful opera- 
tion. It soon acquired vigor by custom, and continu- 
ally gained strength from increasing popular reverence 
and affection. The nation encountered no crisis until 
1860. The election of Abraham Lincoln, in 18G0, 
occurred at a time when a sectional faction, with exten- 
sive ramifications, had prepared a formidable rebellion. 

The election in 1864 was still more critical. Abra- 
ham Lincoln, who had been elected in 1860, had been 
effectually excluded by the rebellion from recognition 



or acceptance in one-third of the States. It only re- 
mained for the still adhering States to reject Lincoln, 
as President, in 1864, to effect a speedy, if not an im- 
mediate, dissolution of the Union, On the other hand, 
it was reasonably expected that the reaffirmation in 
1864 of the choice made in 1860 would so consolidate 
the loyal and patriotic hopes of the country in support 
of the administration, as to' enable President Lincoln 
to prosecute the war as no other President could, and 
to improve returning peace as no other President 
could, by combining conciliation with decision, until 
the Constitution should be re-established throughout 
the whole Union. Within four months after the elec- 
tion of 1864 the strength of the rebellion was effectu- 
ally broken, and on the 4th of March, 1865, Abraham 
Lincoln entered upon his second term of the presi- 
dency, for the first time, with full possession of the 
rebel States ; de facto as well as de jure the recognized 
and accepted Chief Magistrate of the whole Republic. 
(Applause.) With him the Congress and the otlier 
departments of the Federal LTnion were equally recog- 
nized and accepted. 

The duty which devolved upon the Government in 
the second administration of Abraham Lincoln, was to 
save the Consititution and tlie Union from further 
revolutionary violence, and by just, generous, and 
judicious measures to bring the distracted and deso- 
lated rebel States back to their constitutional relations 
with the Federal Union. 

We have reached at last the end of that second 
administration, begun by Abraham Lincoln, and we 
unfortunately find that its great work, as I have de- 
scribed it, remains as yet only incompletely and unsatis- 



factorily accomplished. Parties now vehemently dis- 
pute whethei" this failure is the fault of one department 
or of another ; the fault of the President, or the fault 
of Congress ; the fault of the executive system of re- 
conciliation, or of the congressional system of recon- 
struction. I do uot enter into that dispute. It already 
belongs to the past. Nevertheless, I am now inclined 
to think that it was unreasonable to expect the passions 
and ambitions of thirty-three free States, and thirty 
millions of free people so recently and terribly con- 
vulsed by civil war, to subside in so short a period as 
fourj^ears. It is the highest attribute of the Almighty, 
which the divine poet has conceived, that He "stilleth 
the noise ot the seas, and the noise of their waves, and 
the tumult of the people.'' The storms must be with- 
Iield before the seas can come to rest. 

Probably such an intense and pervading political 
agitation as ours could not have been suddenly re- 
pressed without overthrowing public liberty itself, as 
the Napoleons did at the close of two popular French 
revolutions. 

The choice of our two principal magistrates in 1864 
was certainly wisely made. We found out at the be- 
ginning of the civil war that neither party, and no party 
alone witiiout co-operation from the other, could save 
the country. The people who made the choice in 1864 
were neither a Republican party nor a Democratic 
party, but avowedly and heroically a Union people, and 
union always means an effective combination of kindred 
forces. The Union people in 1864 followed the rule 
whicli has so generally prevailed of dividing the names 
to be phiced on the presidential ticket between compet- 
ing sections, parties, or interests, giving the greater 



10 

weight to the larger section or party. With nice judg- 
ment, tlierefore, they chose Abraham Lincohi, a north- 
ern Union patriot of RepubHcan antecedents, to be 
President, and Andrew Johnson, a southern Union 
patriot of Democratic antecedents, to be Vice President. 
Active hostilities, however, had hardly ended before 
there appeared a portentous conflict of popular ideas 
and opinions concerning the proper conditions of peace 
and reconciliation, and these ideas and opinions had 
relation to the so-called reconstruction of the State 
governments in the rebel States. Personal ambitions, 
of course, entered into the controversy. Social ideas 
and popular ambitions are inherent in all republics, 
and revolutions stimulate their rapid development. 
No one form of political idea, no one form of personal 
ambition that has presented itself in our recent distrac- 
tions was new. They all sprang up and in turn attained 
complete, though many of them only temporar}^ ascend- 
ency during the French revolution of 1789, a revo- 
lution which, as we all see, gave way after a short 
while to a militar}' despotism that still survives. We 
now see that in the insurrection the rebel States became 
revolutionary States, not merely revolutionary against 
the United States, but revolutionary within themselves. 
As such, they have experienced the fortune of all rev- 
olutionary States. Each new political idea, and every 
distinct personal ambition in revolutionary States, de- 
mands either a severe constitutional reform, or a change 
of the existing constitution altogether. The right of 
the people and their power in such States to make such 
changes is not only unchallenged, but is also unchecked. 
It follows, as a consequence, that no constitution which 
is forged in the white-heat of revolution ever endures. 



11 

We have forgotten that this nation went throngh the 
revolutionary crisis practically without any constitution 
at all. There was indeed a Declaration of Independ- 
ence from Great Britain and from all other nations, and 
a precious assertion of human rights ; but no constitu- 
tional government was established or framed until 
seven years after the last belligerent had disappeared 
from the field. 

We can all recollect that brilliant constitutions suc- 
cessively came out like fire-beacons in the murky gloom 
of the French revolution. All those constitutions 
were based upon some sound political ideas, and all 
ought to have been compatible with any patriotic am- 
bition. Yet they succeeded each other so rapidly, that 
when a politician entered the store of a bookseller in 
Paris, and asked for the constitution of France, he was 
answered, " We do not deal here in periodical publica- 
tions." (Laughter.) 

Mexico seems at last to have acquired a constitution, 
but only after forty years of civil wars, culminating in 
the great calamity which we have so happily escaped — 
foreign intervention. Althougli all the South Ameri- 
can republics have been independent through a period 
of forty or fift}'' years, yet it cannot be certainl}^ said of 
any one of them that it has yet definitely accepted and 
adopted a final constitution. Revolutions have contin- 
ued to overthrow constitutions there as fast as they 
have been made. It was unwise, then, to expect that 
the insurgent States, coming out of their flagrant rebel- 
lion, and yet allowed by the Federal Constitution to 
reconstitute their forms of goverment for them'seivos 
and b}^ their own pi'opor act, in conformity witli (lie 
Federal Constitution, could all at once adopt constitn- 



12 

tions which should be permanently satisfactoiy to 
themselves and to us, in the presence of an entire new 
condition of society produced by the emancipation of 
four millions of slaves. What they have wanted was 
"time." What we have wanted was patience. These 
two wants seasonably indicated the course of popular 
wisdom in regard to restoration, reorganization, or 
reconstruction, by whatever name it may be called. 

Reliance, however, was justly placed upon the advant- 
ages which Abraham Lincoln had for overcoming these 
embarrassments. Leaving out of view his peculiar moral 
and intellectual qualities, Mr. Lincoln possessed a de- 
cided advantage, in the fact that he had conducted the 
Grovernment with approved fidelity and wisdom through 
the entire course of the civil war. As the people gave 
their first confidence to Washington, in organizing the 
Government, upon the ground that he had safely led 
them through the revolutionary war ; as the people in 
1848 gave their confidence to General Taylor, upon the 
ground that he had safely led them through the great- 
est peril of the Mexican war ; so the people were ex- 
pected to give their full confidence to Abraham Lincoln 
in restoring the Union, because he had led them suc- 
cessfully through the late terrific revolutionai'y convul- 
sion of the country. 

No wise and candid man thought, at that time, either 
that the war could be ended, or that peace and recon- 
ciliation could be effected, under an administration that 
did not fully enjoy the public confidence upon two car- 
dinal points, namely, first, the justice of the Union 
cause in the war ; second, the necessity, wisdom, and 
justice of the abolition of African slavery which tlie 
war had effected. [Applause.] 



13 

Abraham Lincoln had a still greater advantage. He 
had been twice chosen by the people themselves to be 
their President, their civil chief. They were accus- 
tomed to liis leadership, and they loved him as an ac- 
cepted impersonation of their own convictions, no 
matter how varied those convictions might be. They 
all knew, or believed they knew, him thoroughly. They 
had committed themselves to his support in advance. 
His success would be their own success. His failure 
would be felt and deplored as their own faihu-e. Thus 
was enlisted in his favor the national pride, the national 
affection, and the national gratitude. What combina- 
tions could have resisted a magistrate thus armed, and 
aiming only to complete the great and glorious work 
of saving the Union, which he himself began? 

In an unhappy hour Abraham Lincoln fell by the 
hand of the assassin. That fearful calamity, which was 
equally beyond human foresight and human control, 
suddenly and profoundly interfered with our high pur- 
poses and patriotic desires. Human nature, around 
the whole circle of the globe, and especially in its cen- 
tre here, recoiled and stood aghast before that great 
crime. 'J'he country sank for a m^oment into sadness 
and despair of its future, from which it was aroused to 
seek and search everywhere, in the Government and 
out of it, in the North and in the South, at home and 
abroad, for secret authors, agents, and motives for the 
horrible assassination. While suspicion attached itself 
by turns to everybod}^ it justly fastened itself at last 
upon the rebellion, and demanded new and severer 
punishment of the rebels, instead of the magiiaiiinious 
reconciliation wliicli the beloved President of whom it. 
had been bereaved had recommended. Who will .^av 



u 

that this sentiment was unnatural ? Who shall say that 
it was even unjust? Revolution has alwaj^s the same 
complex machinery. Besides the public machinery 
which its managers direct!}^ employ, there is always a 
secret assassination-wheel carefully contrived, and ready 
to come into activity when a crisis is reached. Revo- 
lutionists cannot relieve themselves of all responsibility 
for it by pleading that it was unknown to themselves. 
Who can say how far this great crime of assassination 
has been effective in delaying and preventing the de- 
sired reconciliation ? 

It was in the midst of this distraction that Andrew 
Johnson came to the presidency, not by virtue of two 
popular elections to tliat office, like his predecessor, or 
even of one such election, but by virtue of his constitu- 
tional election to be only Vice President. Tlie unfin- 
ished work of the lamented Lincoln devolved upon 
him. The conditions and considerations which were 
the advantages in his election as A^ice President sud- 
denly became disadvantages to him as President. The 
southern States and the Democratic party were remem- 
bered but too unfavorably by the northei-n anti-slavery 
victors, in connection with the rebellion, the civil war, 
and African slavery. 

In addressing himself to the holy work of national 
reconciliation, the new President proceeded with duo 
deliberation and firmness, decision and vigor. He re- 
tained all his lamented predecessor's counsellors. He 
adopted his lamented predecessor's plan of reconcilia- 
tion, which seemed to him, as it seemed then to the 
whole country, to be practicable and easy, because it 
was simple and natural. It consisted simply in opening 
the easiest and shortest yafe way for a return into the 



15 

national family of the people of the southern States, 
who now repented their attempted separation. Those 
States were invited to resume the vacant chairs in the 
legislative councils, by sending Senators and Bepresent- 
atives, who should be chosen by the people of those 
States, and who should prove themselves, by every 
practical test, unquestionably loyal to the Union. 
Some constitution and frame of government in the 
rebel States, however, would be a necessary instru- 
mentality of making such choice of Senators and Rep- 
resentatives. There was at the same time a manifest 
necessity for such renewed institutions of municipal 
government for the restoration of peace and order in 
the disorganized States, the administration of justice, 
and the exercise of other necessary functions of gov- 
ernment there. The people of the rebel States were 
therefore invited to estabHsh such necessary State 
governments, upon the basis of loyalty and fidelity, of 
which practical tests were provided. These tests were: 
first, the acceptance of the new amendment to the 
Constitution which abolished African slavery ; second, 
repudiation of the rebel debt ; third, abrogation of all 
rebel laws; fourth, the acceptance of the so-called iron- 
clad oath. 

All other questions were passed over for further 
and future action. Loyal State governments were 
promptly formed, and loyal Senators and Representa- 
tives appeared with equal promptness at the doors of 
Congress, knocking for admission to the seats vacated 
in 1861. Then, and not till then, peace was pro- 
claimed throughout the land, and authoritatively an- 
nounced to all nations. 

It is not correct that the President of tlie riiiU'tl 



16 

States made those State governments, or caused them 
to be made, by force or intimidation. The Union 
armies, of which he was commander-in-chief, lingered, 
indeed, in the rebel States, to keep the peace in the 
event of surprise during the transition from civil war. 
The popular action there was, nevertheless, sponta- 
neous, and the Executive confined itself to the form of 
suggestion and advice of which President Lincoln had 
already wisely set an accepted example. The new 
State constitutions were the best attainable at the 
time, without direct application of force. 1 hey were 
adequate to the emergency, and they were open, like 
all similar constitutions, to further revisions and im- 
provement, with the lapse of time and the increase 
of popular knowledge and virtue in the several States. 
Congress hesitated, debated, postponed. The rebel 
States were no longer in rebellion. They w^ere not re- 
ceived into the Union. The people, North as well as 
South, were excited : new schemes were proposed, new 
party combinations formed. There was no longer the 
Union party, which had conducted the country through 
the fiercest civil war ever known. But that party was 
seen resolving itself, in an untimely hour, into ancient 
divisions, the Republican and Democratic parties. An 
advanced section of one party demanded new and far- 
ther guaranties, and entertained w'ild propositions of 
retaliation, confiscation, proscription, disfranchisement, 
and other penalties, as conditions of reconciliation. A 
reactionary section of the other insisted that all delays 
were not only hazardous, but that all conditions what- 
ever were unnecessary, unreasonable, and unconstitu- 
tional. One party insisted that there could be no safe 
peace without immediately extending suffrage to the 



17 

freeclmen by means no matter how rash, unconstitu- 
tional, or violent. The other insisted that a proceed- 
ing so abrupt, so violent, so inconsistent with the pro- 
visions of the Constitution of the United States in 
regard to the conservation of the States rights and in- 
dividual freedom would inevitably inaugurate a war of 
races. What did all this indicate but a controversy 
about the new constitutions to be formed in the south- 
ern States ? What did imperial intervention in St. 
Domino'o or Mexico mean, but a demand of such a con- 
stitution there as should be acceptable to France ? 

It is not my purpose to revive now, or even to re- 
trace, that long and angry debate. We all see how it 
has resulted thus far. All the Representatives sent to 
Congress by the rebel States in 1865 have been rejected 
without regard to their qualifications or their loyalty. 
All the loyal State governments formed in 1865 have 
been abrogated, without regard to their lo3^alty, with 
the exercise of military force. Subaltern army officers 
have been placed by Congress in charge of the several 
States. Congress has enfranchised and has disfran- 
chised in those States, iust as seemed best calculated to 
secure the acceptance of constitutions prescribed by 
itself through military agents in communities where no 
rebel force has been seen for nearly four years. The 
President, with a tenacity that has provoked the scru- 
tiny of the nation and challenged the judgment of 
mankind, has held fast to two things, namely, the wise 
and liuiiKine plan of his predecessor, and, what is infi- 
nitely more important, the Constitution of the United 
States, just as he found both. For this adherence he 
has been brought to trial ou impeachment in constitu- 
tional form, for pretended high crimes and misdemean- 



18 

ovs, and duly acquitted. The nation has thus been 
called on to sustain the new shock of political assassi- 
nation of its chosen and beloved head, and to encounter 
afterwards the wild and reckless proceedings of incou- 
siderate leaders, such as kept Mexico in a condition of 
anarchy through a period of forty years, and wliich 
have left hardly one stable or even peaceful republic 
remaining in South America. Most of the States or- 
ganized in this irregular manner have sent their Rep- 
resentatives to Congress, and those Representatives 
have been admitted, while all the State governments 
through whose machinery those Representatives were 
sent, or nearly all, are invoking the Congress of the 
United States to suspend the writ of habeas coiyiis, to 
establish martial law, to assume and to condde to mili- 
tary agents the entire business of government in those 
States, under alarms and fears of renewed insurrection 
and restoration of slavery. 

It is not my purpose to vindicate or even to explain 
the part I myself have had in these transactions ami 
debates, instructive as I am sure they will pi-ove to 
future ages. I simply say that as I stood firmly by the 
wise and magnanimous policy of President Lincoln in 
his life, so I have adhered to the same policy since his 
mortal remains were committed to an untimely grave, 
and I have adhered witli equal fidelity to his constitu- 
tional successor. 

When the civil war came to an end, no wise man 
supposed that the transition could be abruptly made 
from a state of civil war to a condition of tranquillity 
and peace without occasional disturbance to be pro- 
duced by inconsiderate individuals, and even by unlaw- 
ful combinations of disappointed and excited i^en. On 



19 

the contraiy, every wise man knew that reconciliation, 
liowevcM- hindered, could not be lon.g deferred, and that 
constituent States of this Union, no matter how far 
they had wandered from the ways of lo3^alty, must 
sooner or hiter be again received into the Union. I 
liave liabitually thouglit that all needful political wis- 
dom in I'egard to that crisis was contained in tlie scrip- 
tural injunction, "agree with your adversary quickly," 
and that this injunction, which is true in regard to all 
adversaries, is especially true when 3'our adversaries 
are estranged brethren. 

ISo much, my friends, for the past. What now is the 
})resent situation ? We have heard for three years 
alarms of premature reconciliation, the advantages of 
procrastination, the dangers of reaction and renewed 
rebellion. At last the cry is frantically uttered by all 
parties, " Peace, peace!'' " Let \\s,\\2iVQ peace!''' [loud 
applause,] when there is no peace in the sense implied, 
but only forebodings of renewed war. What does the 
country need in view of this painful situation ? I an- 
swer my own question. It needs just what it needed 
in 18G5 — the admission of loyal Representatives from 
the late rebel States into the Congress of the United 
States: and it needs at this tinjc and at our hands no 
more. When you have given to the southeiMi Stales 
the places in Congress where they will have a consti- 
tutional hearing, the people there will acquiesce in what 
Congress may require, and their mouths will be closed 
on all constitutional t()i)ics that have produceil agita- 
tion and excitement. The States which send those Ke[)- 
resentatives must have loyal rei)resentative govern- 
ments to determine who, what party, what intcu'cst, or 
what faction shall enjoy the power (U- discharge (he 



20 

responsibilities of government there. We must indeed 
keep the peace for them, if the}- cannot keep it them- 
selves. We must, therefore, support and maintain 
existing governments there to that end ; but it belongs 
to the people of those States, just as much as it belongs to 
the people of this State, to say whether they shall live 
under one form of loyal republican government or an- 
other, and under one administration of loyal republican 
government or under another. I do not ask or require 
that representatives or governments there shall be white, 
or black, or mixed. I insist only that they shall be 
representative men, freely chosen in those States by the 
people themselves, and not by outside compulsion or 
dictation. I. do, indeed, know that the best form of 
republican government existing in any of the States is 
capable of amendment, as I am sure that it will here- 
after be greatl}^ amended. Being no conservative, in 
the narrow meaning of that word, I not only do not 
oppose, but I favor all such amendments, and accept 
but one limitation for my efforts in that direction. That 
limitation is the Constitution of tlie United States; 
which enjoins non-intervention upon me, so long as 
those States are loyal to the Union, and keep the pub- 
lic peace, their own peace, and the peace of the Union. 
I shall not, therefore, take the sword into my own hand, 
or put it in the hand of any other person, to effect a 
reform by force in those States, which, I am sure, will 
be effected much sooner and much more permanently 
through the exercise of persuasion and reason. As 
little do I think it my duty to use the sword to cut 
away and remove what has already been done in those 
States, [applause,] whether it was necessarily done or 
unnecessarily and unwisely done. As I thougiit the 



21 

situation which existed in 1865 ought to be accepted 
by a reasonable, patriotic, and humane administration, 
so do I think now the situation which exists in 1868, 
after the best efforts have been made to secure abetter, 
ought to be accepted. 

I am not without hope, my friends, that tliis painful 
national dilemma may be solved before the end of the 
present administration, as all our other national diffi- 
culties have been or will be. The ambition.s of parties 
and chiefs must come to a rest with the close of this 
election, and calmness and tranquillity must sooner or 
later resume their sway over the public mind. In that 
case, I shall have little desire to speak concerning the 
future administration of the Government, content to 
have performed with singleness of purpose, and with 
all my ability, my duties under the administration with 
which I am personally connected. It is, on the other 
hand, possible that the dilemma of reconciliation may 
continue unsolved, and may require the attention of the 
new administration. It is in this respect that I deem 
the present choice of a future Chief Magistrate not 
merely important, but perhaps critically so, as the last 
two choices were. One consideration alone is sufficient 
to determine my judgment in this emergency. I can- 
not forget that the civil war has closed with two great 
political achievements: the one the saving of the integ- 
rity of the Union, the other the abolition of African 
slavery. Personally, I see no cause to fear, in any 
case, a reaction in which both or either of these great 
national attainments can be lost. They are in harmony 
with the spirit of the age and the established progress 
of mankind. 

M}^ confidence, however, in this respect, is not in- 



22 

dulo-cd, nor do I expect it to be ciitertuiiied b}- all, nor 
even ])y tlie majority of my patriotic fellow-citizens, 
wlio were engaged with mo in making or aiding those 
great achievements. Their wounds, unlike )ny own, 
are 3''et unhealed ; their sacrifices, unlike my own, are 
yet unrewarded. They have been, therefore, and they 
will continue to be, api)rehen,sive in that regard, and 
those ap[)rehensions will increase with every indiscreet 
proceeding, or even utterance, of any person or parties 
who were ever compromised in, or who ever sympa- 
thized with, the rebellion or with African slavery. Con- 
lidence is, in the case of most men, tiiough it is not in 
mine, a plant of slow growth. Not only is it true that 
such apprehensions, however unreasonable they may 
be, cannot be safely disregarded, but it is equally true 
that they are to be respected and indulged, because of 
the moral influence they will exert in favoi- of union, 
freedom, and progress in all future times and tlu^ough- 
out the world. Tiie magistrates who are to preside, 
then, in the woik (jf reconciliation hereafter, ought, 
like those who have preceded in former stages of 
that work, to be men drawn irom and representing 
that class of citizens who maintained the Govern- 
ment in the prosecution of the civil war and in the 
abolition of slavery. [Great applause.] In no other 
hands could the work of reconciliation Ije expected to 
be successful, because of a dillerent sort of magisti-ates 
would be profoundly and generally suspected a willing- 
ness to betray the transcendent public interests which 
were gained and secured b}^ the war. 

The attitude of each of the political parties in this 
canvass is, in some respects, ditFerent from what I my- 
self couhl have desired oi- would have advised. Vcu'v 



great wrongs have been committed in tlie name of lib- 
erty by the Republicans of the United Stats, as great 
crimes were committed in the same holy name by 
French republicans in. the revolution of 1789. Never- 
theless, the Republican party neither rests under any 
suspicion of its devotion to human freedom, nor can it 
fall under any such suspicion. 

The Democratic party, I do not now propose to say 
with how much justice, has not so conducted itself in 
its corporate and responsible action as to secure the 
entire confidence of a loyal and exacting people in its 
unconditional and uncompromising adherence to the 
Union, or in its acceptance and approval of the effective 
abolition of slavery. I entertain no jealousy of the 
Democratic party or its leaders, and no unfriendly or 
uncharitable feelings towards that great constituency. 
On the other hand, I cherish a grateful appreciation of 
the patriotism, the magnanimity, the heroism of many 
of my fellow-citizens with whom I have cheerfully 
labored and co-operated, while they still retained their 
adhesion to the Democratic party. How could I dis- 
trust the loyalty or the virtue of Andrew Johnson, of 
General Hancock, General McClellan. Senator Bucka- 
lew of Pennsylvania, of Senator Hendricks of Indiana, 
or his associate, Mr. Niblack, or of Mr. Cox of Ohio, 
to whom, personally, more than any other member, is 
due the passage of the constitutional amendment in 
Congress abolishing African slavery. I have, there- 
fore, regarded with sincere, and, I trust, patriotic sat- 
isfaction, the efforts of Democratic leaders, as well 
those made in 1864 at Chicago, as the gi-eater ones 
made in New York in 1868, to lift the Democratic 
party up to a plane, upon attaining whicli all the errors, 



24 

and short-comings of any of its members during the 
civil war woidd at once drop off from the Democratic 
party's back, as the burden of Christian fell off his back 
when he " came up to the cross." 

If the Democratic party had only reached that plane 
I should have felt that further concern on my part 
about the woik of reconciliation might be dismissed. 
In that case we should have had tlie two great parties of 
the country substantially agreed in the right, just as the 
two great parties of the country, in my judgment, in 
1 852 agreed in the wrong. In 1852 both parties agreed 
in the compromise of 1850, which accepted the fugitive 
slave hiw, allov/ed the extension of African slaver}', 
and prohibited discussion upon it in the National Con- 
gress forever. If the Democratic party in 18G8 had 
lifted tliemselves to the position I have supposed, we 
sliould then have had both parties of the country prac- 
ticall}' agreeing in the justice, wisdom, and humanity of 
the Government in the civil war, and of the abolition of 
slavery ; and at the same time agreeing upon the ripe- 
ness of the time and the necessity for peace and frater- 
nal alfection. The Democratic party having failed to 
do so, its preparation to assume the responsibilities of 
a I'escued and regenerated nation must be delaved four 
years. To conhde those responsibilities to that party 
in its present position would be to continue, perhaps 
increase, the lamentable political excitement which alone 
has prevented the complete restoration of the I'nion to 
the present time. 

I well know that it will be said, on the other hand, 
with much show of reason, that extreme idealists and 
agitators nui}' be expected to exert a dangerous influ- 
ence under a new Republican administration, by reason 



25 

of their having gathered themselves into the ranks of 
the sujjporters of the Republican candidate. This, 
however, is no new dilemma for me, or for many of you, 
my old friends. We were required year after year to 
support Henry Clay as the best of two choices, although 
he disavowed all that time the noble principles which 
we held concerning the irrepressible conflict between 
freedom and slavery. We did so wisely. We were 
required in 1852 to support Greneral Scott as the best 
of two candidates offered us, although he was put upon 
a platform which maintained the fugitive slave law, and 
declared it perpetually inviolable. We wisely did that. 
No one citizen may ever hope to find a candidate per- 
fectly acceptable to himself, and yet find that the 
grounds of his own choice for that candidate are ac- 
cepted by. all his fellow-citizens who concur with him 
in that preference. No one can foresee six months 
beforehand what the political exigencies of the country 
may be, or how the administration of the Government 
must act when they occur. In 1860 we elected a Presi- 
dent simply to maintain the cause of freedom against 
legislative aggression. That administration encount- 
ered no such difficulty. The danger apprehended had 
passed away before that administration came into power, 
and it found itself confronted, instead of that danger, by 
a rebellion which taxed all its energies, and opened a 
conflict which resulted in the immediate abolition of 
slavery ; an event which had not been before expected 
to occur in less than fifty years ! So I think none can 
now foresee the especial line of official duty which a 
new administration may find it necessary to pursue. 

We are impatient of the slow progress we make to- 
wards great national ends. We often magnify the 

4 



26 

obstacles we meet and deem them insurmountable ; but 
time is always busy in abatini^ those difficulties and 
smoothing our way. I'he result of the election, if fa- 
voi-able to the candidates of our choice, will put an end 
to all the debates which it has excited, and prepare the 
})opular mind to accept now what it has heretofore re- 
jected, namely, the most practicable and easy solution 
of the national embarrassments. In any case I console 
myself with the reflection that as wisdom was not born 
with the administration of Abraham Lincoln, so it will 
not die with the administration of vindrew Johnson. 

I have not entertained you on this occasion, my 
friends, with eulogiums upon your candidates or any 
of them ; or with aspersions of the candidates of your 
opponents or any of them. I need scarcely remind 
you that I have no such habit. Certainly there is no 
occasion now for that line of debate. All those candi- 
dates are well known, more widely known indeed than 
any candidates who have ever before been named for 
the high offices foi" which they are designated, since 
the first administration of the Government. They are 
better known, because they are historically identified 
with national trials of surpassing magnitude, and of 
deep interest to all mankind. 

It remains only now to thank you for your indul- 
gence. If 1 luive come among you late, I have, never- 
theless, come in time. I have neither Cjuestioned the 
opinions nor the motives which have governed your 
civil conduct since we last met. I have troubled you 
with no explanations of my own. A\ e have come to- 
gether again at a time when I am approaching the end 
of a service in the executive department of our Gov- 
ernment as long as has ever been vouchsafed by this 



27 

nation to any citizen in the Department which I have 
conducted. Practically, I am already returned among 
you a private citizen, as I was when I was called into 
that service. The responsibilities and ti-ials which have 
attended the Government during that period have 
transcended in dignity and in interest any through 
which our Groverninent had previously passed, except, 
perhaps, in the Revolution. I trust that no equal re- 
sponsibilities or trials ai'e in reserve for the next adminis- 
tration, or are to be encountered by an}^ future admin- 
istration for many generations to come. I am by no 
means confident that I have not often erred. I have, 
nevertheless, a humble trust that at least these things 
can be said of me, by those of you whose friendship I 
am still permitted to enjoy, namely, that no act or 
word of mine brought on or hastened the lamentable 
civil war whose wounds it is our present object to heal. 
But. on the contrary, no act that I could perform, nor 
vxny word that I could utter, to prevent or even delay 
that calamity, was withheld. When that civil war 
came and found me on the ramparts of the Consul u- 
tion, and so long as it was waged, no act or word of 
mine encouraged an enemy of the United States, at 
home or abroad • while, on the contrary, every act that 
I could lawfully perform, and every word that I could 
lawfully utter to save the national life, fearfully exposed 
at home and abroad, was performed and spoken. No 
act or word of mine has consented to the prolongation 
of slavery a single day. On the contrary, ray hand and 
seal is found upon the one international act which re- 
mained to abolish the African slave-trade throughout 
the world, and on the military proclamation and t\\e con- 



28 

stitutional amendment, that forever abolished slavery 
itself in the United States. [Applause.] 

No one State in the Union, nor any fraction of a 
State, was, by any action or wjDrd of mine, driven or 
allowed to separate itself from the Union. On the con- 
trar}^, every act or word that I could lawfully perform 
or speak to prevent that wik\ treason or madness was 
spoken with all the decision, and 3^et with all the 
moderation, that such counsels rec[uired. When that 
frightful rebellion ceased, no one State of the Union, 
or fraction of a State, was, by an}^ action or word of 
mine, repelled from returning to its allegiance. On 
the contrary, every act or word of mine that was use- 
ful, or that promised to be useful, in bringing those 
revolutionary States back to reinforce and reinvigorate 
the Union which they had so rashly attempted to de- 
stroy, was seasonably performed and spoken. Xo seat 
in Congress constitutionally assigned to any State or 
community within the United States is now, or ever 
has been, one moment kept vacant or unoccupied 
through any prohibition, obstruction, or hindrance of 
mine, by word or deed. On the contrary, tlie crime, 
and only crime, of which I now know that I am im- 
peached, is that of being too precipitate in the policy 
of national reconciliation and peace. No State, nor 
any citizen, by an}' act or word of mine, has sudered 
disfranchiseiiient or confiscation, nor, except for the 
assassination of Abraham Lincoln, has any ore endured 
penalties or punishment. Throughout m}' life an ad- 
vocate of universal suffrage for the exile and the 
emigrant, and even the slave, I give to those classes 
the suppoi't and patronage which the Constitution of 
my counti-y permits and allows. [Applause.] No 



29 

injury, insult, or other offence has been committed 
against our country, or any one of its citizens, by any 
foreign State or nation, without having found me 
emplojdng all the constitutional power confided to me, 
with all the ability I possessed, to redress the wrong. 
The prestige of the nation I humbly trust has not been 
lost or impaired. I almost dare to think it has been 
elevated amid all the domestic trials of civil war and 
factions. The Monroe doctrine, which eight years ago 
was merely a theory, is now an irreversible fact. Cer- 
tainly the country is not less now, but is larger than I 
found it when I entered my last public service. It has 
already begun to enjoy the wealth of the polar seas, 
and I am sure it is not my fault if its Hag is still jeal- 
ously excluded by European nations from the ever- 
verdant islands of the Carribean sea. When I left you 
to enter the public service, insurrectionary armies were 
being gathered into the field of domestic war, and the 
hollowness of national friendships was experienced in 
the melancholy fact that the United States had not one 
assured and sympathizing friend in the world except 
tlie republic of Switzerland. It is a source of satisfac- 
tion to us all that our country has now many new and 
established friends amongst the nations, while for my- 
self I am sure, as I trust you will soon be for your- 
selves, that they have no longer any dangerous domestic 
foe within their borders. If now I shall find the ancient 
cheer which heretofore presided at your firesides in 
winter ; if I shall find the birds still lingering in your 
gardens and groves as in the olden time in the summer; 
if the trout are not exhausted in your brooks, or the 
l)erch in your lakes ; if industry still dwells in your 
shops and you still want new shops and houses to be 



80 

built for 3'oiir mechanics aiifl laborers ; if piet)" sliall 
prevail as heretofore in your churches, and charity 
toward each other, and humanity toward all conditions 
of men shall distinguish your political assemblies, then 
indeed we are about to renew, witli mutual satisfaction, 
an acquaintance which, while it existed unbroken, was 
ha])py for us all, and which for me has been too long 
and painfully suspended. [Gfeat applause.] 



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